The Cinema of Jia Zhangke: Realism and Memory in Chinese Film

(Paperback)

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Shorlisted for the BAFTSS 2020 Award for Best Monograph Starting out as an independent filmmaker, and despite his films being subjected to censorship in his native China, Jia Zhangke has become the countrys leading film director internationally. Seen as one of world cinemas foremost auteurs, he has played a crucial role in documenting and reflecting upon Chinas era of intense transformations since the 1990s.. Ceclia Mello provides in-depth analysis of Jias unique body of work, from his early films Xiao Wu and Platform, to experimental quasi-documentary 24 City and the audacious Mountains May Depart. Mello suggests that Jias particular expression of the realist mode is shaped by the aesthetics of other Chinese artistic traditions, allowing Jia to unearth memories both personal and collective, still lingering within the ever-changing landscapes of contemporary China. Mellos groundbreaking study opens a door into Chinese cinema and culture, addressing the nature of the so-called impure cinematographic art and the complex representation of China through the ages. Foreword by Walter Salles and with a new preface by the author.

Reviews

The tone is serious and scholarly, and the author approaches her subject as if nothing could be as important in a world in which the liberal arts have been almost abandoned Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *
Cecilia Mello's study of Jia Zhangke, China's leading independent director, brilliantly counterbalances the impulses towards realism and intermediality she finds in Zhangke's work. Its foreword by Walter Salles backs up Salles's and Mello's claim that Zhangke is the most important world film director of the twenty-first century so far, and Mello's thorough knowledge and understanding of Chinese cultures of this period underpins the book's location of memory between the realist impulse and the impure multilayeredness of Zhangke's films. -- BAFTSS Awards judges
Over the course of the past 25 years, there has been no better cinematic chronicle of Chinas dramatic transformation than the films of Jia Zhangke... Ceclia Mello digs deep into Jias body of work, unveiling a rich tapestry of intermingling songs, landscapes, textures, and intertexts. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding how Jia Zhangkes films work. -- Michael Berry, Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies, UCLA, USA
Ceclia Mellos refined analysis not only unravels Jia Zhangkes poetics of cinema as a complex aesthetic of in- betweenness contemplating a world in inevitable transience and change, but also proposes an amazingly nuanced intermedial approach that illuminates from different vantage points the deep imbrication of art and life, memory and palpable reality. -- gnes Petho, Professor of Film Studies, Sapientia University, Romania
Ceclia Mellos book is a breakthrough. It clears the mists around Jia Zhangkes famously impure realism, showing how it is shot through with Chinese aesthetics drawn from wuxia martial arts, Chinese opera performance, gardening, painting, and more. -- Chris Berry, Professor of Film Studies, Kings College London, UK

Author Bio

Ceclia Mello is Professor in Film Studies at the University of So Paulo, Brazil. She has written previously on Jia Zhangke in book chapters and articles, and she is the co-editor, with Lcia Nagib, of Realism and the Audiovisual Media (2009).